Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is making public a letter of warning that is being sent to a bishop who is actively seeking to withdraw his diocese from the Episcopal Church, and has stated that letters to other bishops will follow.
Per Episcopal Life Online, “four additional bishops have accepted Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s invitation to serve as “episcopal visitors” in dioceses requesting this provision.” They are: Bishops Philip Duncan of Central Gulf Coast, Duncan Gray of Mississippi, Rayford High (suffragan) of Texas, and Rodney Michel (assisting) of Maryland. They join eight other bishops who accepted the role during the House of Bishops meeting.
A truly delightful video interview with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on KOCO TV in Oklahoma: watch it here.
As a Joint Standing Committee, we do not see how certain primates can in good conscience call upon The Episcopal Church to meet the recommendations of the Windsor Report while they find reasons to exempt themselves from paying regard to them. … We believe that the time is right for a determined effort to bring interventions to an end.
Sometimes in trying to figure out what one thinks, one comes across someone who has already thought it.
For the true Episcopal news junkie, video on demand from the recently completed meeting of the House of Bishops. Watch the final news conference, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s message to the Church, a report on the bishops’ day of service and other news conferences.
As the bishops processed into the auditorium, I had to suppress a desire to stand up and cheer when Bishop Katharine passed. She has presence – a quiet dignity and grace about her – that comes through, literally, in passing.
Updated: Interestingly, the Thursday night AP story quotes from the item below. Not a lot to report from our friends who were in the room.
Eight bishops have accepted Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s invitation to serve as “episcopal visitors” to dioceses that have requested this provision.The eight are active diocesan bishops Frank Brookhart of Montana, Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina, John Howe of Central Florida, Gary Lillibridge of West Texas, Michael Smith of North Dakota, James Stanton of Dallas, and Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, together with retired Connecticut Bishop Clarence Coleridge.
It is not within the power of the House of Bishops, the Joint Standing Committee or Archbishop Williams to stop Archbishop Akinola and his allies from breaking from the Anglican Communion. But it is within their power to appeal to the substantial minorities in the Church and the Communion who are uneasy about the course the Episcopal Church has charted, but appalled by the rhetoric and tactics of Akinola and his virulent friends.